Jaya sweeps Tamil Nadu with 37 seats, but won't play kingmaker

Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s ruling party AIADMK won 37 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state, with BJP and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) winning one seat each. [caption id=“attachment_1527203” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] J. Jayalalithaa. AFP[/caption] As a result, AIADMK has turned out to be one of the largest parties in the 16th Lok Sabha after the BJP and the Congress. AIADMK sweeped the state thanks to a Jayalalithaa wave across the state. Party cadres started their victory celebrations at AIADMK headquarters yesterday. “The AIADMK has done extremely well. The party seems to have bettered its own expectations. “People seems to agree with her views on various issues advocated strongly by her like the Cauvery river water sharing, Mullaperiyar dam dispute with Kerala, attacks on Indian fishermen by Sri Lanka and others,” Ramu Manivannan, professor of political science in the University of Madras, told IANS. Looking ahead, Manivannan said AIADMK may not be part of the new government at the centre, but its leader J. Jayalalithaa will certainly be in a position to influence the policies of the new government. He said DMK’s poor show is not mainly due to the infighting between M.K. Alagiri and M.K. Stalin, both sons of party president M. Karunanidhi. “The party has not fared well in northern Tamil Nadu where Alagiri has no influence. His influence is only confined to southern parts of the state,” Manivannan said. He added that the people feel the DMK has not espoused the state’s cause as strongly as Jayalalithaa has done. Dhaya Alagiri, son of former DMK leader and union minister Alagiri, tweeted that it was not surprising that AIADMK swept the polls. DMK, the major opposition party in the state, did not establish lead in any of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. The party’s leading lights like A. Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, T.R. Baalu and others are trailing to their respective AIADMK rivals. Going by the trends, the Congress is facing a total washout as per pre-poll expectations. IANS